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My colleagues are great!

Here’s the first photo that I received while sitting at work.  She is so attentive in this photo!

I have to say that I knew Father’s Day was approaching but I don’t really feel like much of a father yet.  It has only been a few weeks since Sierra has been with us and other than changing diapers and introducing her to geek culture, I can’t say that I have imparted much wisdom into her yet.

She was nice enough to present me with a nice card which had a great Star Wars joke on it, as well as a BBQ flipper that said “I flippin’ love you Dad!  Love Sierra” on the handle!  I loved it!  I have also been looking for a flipper exactly like that one (bottle opener, cutting edge, gripping edge, flip) for awhile now as I lost ‘The Boss’ flipper awhile ago.

We then headed out to St-Albert to get a poutine at the cheese factory.  We have a system in place where we feed the kid and then hit the road as the car puts her to sleep and we manage to squeeze anywhere between 2-4 hours out of a trip.  That’s enough time to get some errands done.  It has worked for us so far and Vero has managed to avoid feeding outside of the house.  Not that she is opposed to it, but I’m sure a comfy chair in your living room is better than the backseat of a car.

Unfortunately for us, everyone else in the Eastern Ontario area had the same idea as us and around 1:30pm, the place was still packed!  We decided to head back to Embrun but not before checking out a farmer’s market where I picked up some deer pepperettes.

Tasty!

We then headed into Embrun to check out the Half Pint Pub which had recently opened.  There was plenty of space for us to eat.  I ate the best clubhouse sandwich I had ever had and I will definitely be heading back there.

A tried and true Father’s Day beverage.  It was the Beau’s seasonal beer which oddly tasted like their LugTread.  Are the keg taps mixed up?

As Sierra was beginning to wake up, we decided to head home but not before a quick drop in to the second new brewery in Embrun…the Etienne Brule brewpub!  When we drove by a few hours before there were two people sitting down.  When we came back, it was a packed house!  We didn’t bother staying for a drink but it’s good to know that there are a few things on the menu to munch on for the next trip.  I am extremely impressed with all three beers they offer, but I have to say that their blonde beer with the name Vagabond is a missed opportunity in naming a beer!  The Citrale definitely is a favourite of mine as I love the pale ales with a hint of citrus.

Thanks for the Father’s Day outing girls!

I dub thee Shiek Sierra!

Marie-Claude, Jean-Francois and Annabelle (Annabel?) dropped by on Saturday afternoon followed by Vero and Martin.  It was really interesting to hang out with Annabelle as she is a glimpse into our future in the house.  She was really nice around the baby and had a mischievous streak in her when she wanted to play hide and seek.  She wouldn’t even tell you that we were playing the game until we found her behind a chair in the baby’s room!

JF demonstrating proper baby holding techniques to me while I struggle lifting up a one year old.  Time to hit those weights!

On my last day of vacation, the family headed over to Embrun to check out one of the two new breweries in town…Tuque de Broue.  It is a similar setup to any other brewery you see where you enter, smell the marvelous aromas, and get to test out some samples.  The woman at the counter was nice enough to explain a few things to me as I perused their wares.  I decided to pick up one of each beer and try them out over the weekend.  I have to say that all in all, I wasn’t too impressed with the beer, however I will prefer stronger tasting beers.  I can definitely see a lot of people enjoying their beers so I encourage everyone to drop in, support a local business, and try out the beers for yourselves!

People say there are not enough of photos being posted of mom and daughter.

Supper was graciously provided by Nat and Marc Aces who dropped by to see what was new in our lives.  They brought over some great chinese food from Dong Seng.  Aces was chatting to us about his pilot lessons and how he managed to go solo a few times which was invigorating.  Sierra was well behaved around Nat which basically means Nat is a good babysitter/mom.

Nat snapped this photo and proclaimed “This is what you look like when you are frustrated at work!”

It’s pretty hot here in Ottawa these days so it was a fast walk around the block so Sierra could get some breeze!

There’s only so many exciting shots I can get during our walk.

After our walk, we headed down to the basement to cool off and Sierra requested that I put in the new U2 tour concert into the blu-ray player.  She thought it was a pretty good video and it’s nice to see the tour that Joelle, Alan, Vero and I went to a year ago in Montreal.

How YOU doin’?

Trish dropped by for lunch at the chip stand as we realized that some of our friends don’t have regular 9-5 hours for work.  It was nice to see her before she traipsed off to PEI for the month of July.

Note the Mennonite hat that they decided to put on her.

Gandalf the Grey happened to be hanging out at the chip stand so he agreed to be photographed with Sierra.

An exciting lunch out…Vero’s first poutine after her pregnancy (she had a gall bladder attack the other time she tried one), and Trish’s first whistle dog!  Plus Sierra really liked the taste of gravy!

Later in the afternoon, Melanie and Jonathan dropped by to hang out with us.  Sierra is pretty excited as they are planning to move to Embrun in a month from now so they will be closer to her.

A busy day for Sierra, but what day shouldn’t be?

 

Wednesday was a big day for us.  But I got to start it out good with a walk around the block with Sierra.  As always, she seems pretty impressed with the adventure.

I met a gentleman called Wayne during my walk around and chatted to him about minimum wage and how he doesn’t make much while cutting lawns around the area.  I did feel bad that when he asked if I had any spare change, I forgot I had some in the stroller.  I asked him if getting change these days was harder since a lot of people use debit/credit a lot more and he said it was.

A surprise visit dropped by in the form of Mike and Max!  Mike had the day off so Melanie could go to the spa (Boyfriend of the year award right there!).  They dropped by with some excellent quinoa salad and it was a beautiful day so we had some burgers.  Max is a pretty amazing glimpse into my own future.  I also love how his hair somehow always forms into a Mohawk.

 

Here is Max chatting me up since he knows he might want to bring Sierra out on a date in about 15 years.  

For being such a gentleman, I rewarded him with a little treat!

Mike and Max couldn’t stay too long as we had a third Doctor visit to head to!  It’s really interesting how we had plenty of questions during the first visit, fewer questions the second time and this time around there were only a few.  Clearly we are getting the hang of this thing!  That’s probably an indication that everything we know will be thrown out the window by next week!

My favourite part of the week was when the doctor said that a baby puts on around 20-25 grams each day on average and Sierra was putting on an average of 39 grams!  I have now dubbed her Miss Piggy!  I’m really excited that she is putting on a lot of weight.  We can definitely tell as she has some chubby cheeks and her legs don’t look like chicken wings.

While at the doctor, we heard a story about another baby who had come into the office and they weren’t putting much weight on and the doctor was concerned but the father just brushed it off saying that they weren’t concerned.  I have a hard time understanding why people would take time out of their day to visit a medical professional who provides advice, and then proceeds to dismiss it like they don’t know what they are talking about.  What a waste of time on their part, and more importantly, what are you thinking?

Prognosis: Great!

Vero having a great time with Sierra.

The playmat is way more fun with Mom!

To end off the night, Sierra decided to make a long distance call to Hearst and chat it up with Arrière grand-mère Cantin.  They were comparing notes of life in general.

 

Sierra is trying to do the Vulcan salute.

Hey, are these photos sometimes appearing upside down for you all?  I just noticed that happening on my computer but not on my iPad.

Sierra attempting to play some Poulenc.

Sierra has some very long fingers which supposedly her mother had as well when she was a baby.  With long fingers, what better use for them than to pick your nose play piano with!

I tried calming her down with some soothing sounds of a rock organ and I think I was either onto a new composition or I’m totally just copying a Deep Purple song.  I will have to explore that tune a little more over the next few days.  It was nice to play around with the piano a bit since I hadn’t touched it in a few months since I stopped lessons.

I have to say that it’s a little difficult to play the piano with a squirming  human in my lap though!  But I think Sierra enjoyed it.

I’m not too sure that Piano Teacher Kelly would approve of this new style of playing!

We were very fortunate to have a lot of visitors this past weekend…so many that we even had to cancel on a few others!  We’ve realized that we have no idea how much sleep we will get in a night, so we should watch how many events we book in a day!

Friday night, Krista dropped by along with the lady killer: Ethan!

Pro Mom right there.

It was very nice to see them both.  Ethan is a curious creature and enjoyed traipsing around the yard checking out the ants entering the house and scoping out the pine cone collection.  Fast Fact: Did you know that Vero calls Sierra ‘cocotte’ and in French that means ‘pine cone’?  Strange!  It was also great to hear that the canteen at work is doing well as Krista and I took it over a few weeks ago.

The next morning, Holly, Alex and the family showed up after their swimming lessons.  I really like hanging out with their kids as they are fun to horse around with.  I would also like to officially say that I have found my new favourite soup…Holly’s bean soup!  It’s like I’m actually eating a piece of Mexico!  YUM!

Alex giving me tips on how to calm a baby.

Grace playing with Fredo the monkey.  She quite adored that thing until she broke down crying in the next minute.  I have been informed it is a case of the ‘Terrible Two’s’.

Here is the amazing bean soup that Holly made for us!  She just happened to photobomb the picture I was taking of the soup.

It’s really neat to have kids visit us because we get a glimpse of what our future holds for us.  It’s also funny to see how some kids like hanging around with the baby, whereas others couldn’t be bothered and just want to find some toys around the house to play with.  I’m sure I was like that when I was younger.

On Sunday, the Buhr/Haig clan came over in the afternoon.  Ryley was telling me that he saw the new Popstar movie and it was a hit.  I’m excited to see it so I will keep my eyes open for when it comes out of the theatre.  I don’t generally watch movies in the theatre as I prefer to sit in the basement with a beer instead!  I have a home theatre system for a reason.

Future Babysitter’s Club member sitting right here with Sierra!

Jenna learns from the best example of a Mom I know!

I was showing Jenna the power of the excellent moustache app I acquired.

This is basically how I end up after every visit…taking a nap!

It’s been two weeks since you looked at me, cocked your head to the side and said “I’m hungry”.

Sierra has been with us for two weeks now.  I can remember two weeks ago quite vividly as we went into the Montfort hospital where Vero didn’t think she was having contractions per say, but whatever she was having were three minutes apart!  Luckily we headed in there otherwise I would have become Dr. Palmer at the house.

In the past few days we are noticing some chubby cheeks forming on this six pound frame of awesomeness.  It’s neat to see little differences happening over time.

She does seem to have a little more attention span between feedings now which makes life with her a little more interesting.  I think she really likes my bright red McGill sweatshirt as her eyes got really big when I put that on.  We’re also putting her on her stomach whenever she can and she seems to have a pretty strong neck so far.

Other than that, there’s not a lot to report in about.  It’s a little rough at times when she enters a cluster feed which is basically one feeding, then ten minutes later, another feeding, then ten minutes later, another feeding.  Vero is finding it very draining and there’s not much I can do other than offer some lactation balls from the freezer or fill up her water.  We are also starting to change her diaper AFTER her feeding instead of before so we will see if there are any negative repercussions from that.

I made her an offer she couldn’t refuse this afternoon.  Every time I watch this movie I think of Shawn as he and I were big fans of the film.

I have to say that I’m really not looking forward to going back to work in a week’s time.  Does Sierra change that much in a two week time period?  Not really.  Do I feel like I’m going to be missing out on her life by going back to work.  Heck yeah.  But that’s what life is, unless I check those Lotto Max numbers and they tell me otherwise!

We don’t venture outside of the house too much…the past few days consist of Vero and Sierra waking up quite late because they had a hard night.  Then before you know it, bam!  The afternoon is over and done with.  It’s hilarious how I was mapping out what I could do when Sierra was sleeping….stain the deck, do some chores, etc.  But here I am just trying to conserve some energy for whenever I may need it.

She is pretty pensive while contemplating either letting one rip or letting out a scream.

She is a pretty good baby so far though other than the cluster feeding.  I can’t really fault her for being hungry!  But we haven’t seen any signs of colic or anything like that.  She seems to be in good spirits after feedings and seems to be putting on weight.  That’s all we can ask for!

 

For historical reference, a lot of people are saying they see a lot of her Dad in her, especially a cowlick above her right eyebrow.  Luckily, she will most likely have long hair for most of her life so maybe that will work in her favour, unlike her father’s cowlick!  I’m hoping some of her mother starts showing up because Vero is the most beautiful person I’ve met, so it would be great to see that happen again and not just have a female version of me roaming Canada.

I honestly can’t say I see much resemblance yet, but I have a hard time seeing those kind of things in newborns.  I remember seeing a lot of me in Abigail when she was a few months old.

Signing off for the night!  Perhaps I’ll finish watching The Godfather while my girls sleep.